Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the IT, Telecoms Services and Gold sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.17% to hit a new 52-week low.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM), which rose 8.89% or 2.080 points to trade at 25.470 at the close. Meanwhile, Boral Ltd. (AX:BLD) added 3.50% or 0.180 points to end at 5.320 and Ansell Ltd (AX:ANN) was up 2.93% or 0.470 points to 16.530 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which fell 11.76% or 0.160 points to trade at 1.200 at the close. Computershare Ltd. (AX:CPU) declined 7.78% or 0.810 points to end at 9.600 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) was down 6.90% or 0.040 points to 0.540.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 671 to 255 and 261 ended unchanged.
Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) fell to 5-year lows; down 11.76% or 0.160 to 1.200. Shares in Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) fell to 52-week lows; losing 6.90% or 0.040 to 0.540.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.21% to 28.101 a new 3-months high.
Gold for April delivery was down 0.63% or 7.50 to $1191.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.66% or 0.47 to hit $28.41 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.70% or 0.52 to trade at $30.84 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7078, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 81.19.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.00% at 96.05.